So I forgot to mention somewhere that I also did a front suspension greasing exercise and found that I had 2 grease fittings missing on the passenger side. I took care of this at Sears and managed to get everything well greased.

I then proceeded to try and locate the oil leak I took off the carbs and was about to dig into the manifold removal bit in checking I didn’t see any obvious signs of oil from the back tappet cover. Since the oil only showed on the exhaust at the point level with the oil pan fitting I wondered if it was coming from somewhere else. Checking under the car I wondered if the oil pan was not fitting right and I found I could get a ¼ turn on most of the bolts. I also found one up the front on the driver’s side that was really loose! It was the last one you can vaguely reach and I applied some patience and a stubby wrench to the bolt and managed to get this bolt pretty tight.

While checking around for other sources of oil getting to the exhaust and I discovered that the transmission mounts appears to have moved. A closer inspection revealed that there were no bolts keeping the transmission mounts in place and the mounts themselves were pretty crushed and one even looked a little melted. Part of the mount mechanism was pressing up against the right angle drive.

Given this discovery I didn’t want to try and drive the car and see if the oil pan tightening had solved the oil problem. So I decided to wait for transmission mount parts before going further.

Well what I didn’t cover last time was that I seem to have developed an oil leak. As such I figured I’d deal with that before trying to test the carbs out some more.

The leak was coming from the rear oil line as it enters the block. It wasn’t coming from the line itself or from the line attachment. It was coming from behind the adapter and between the block. The biggest issues were that the line nut and the adapter were over an inch in size and that’s the biggest wrench/socket I have. I managed to get the oil line off with an adjustable wrench but that wasn’t going to work, nor did I want to risk it, for the adapter. I discovered that the adapter is 1 1/8 in size and once I had a socket it wasn’t that hard to remove. I was surprised that the socket fit given the close proximity to the back of the block.

With the adapter removed I discovered that there was a washer behind it as it was supposed to be but closer inspection revealed a nick in the inner part. It looks sort of like 2 washers of slightly different sizes stuck together. With advice from MG Experience again I went in search of a copper washer and found something at Advance Auto Parts. It was a drain plug washer but it at least fit.

I installed the replacement washer and put the adapter and line back and with some time to warm the engine up I wasn’t finding any leaks so at this point it was time for a road test of the carbs/fuel delvier again. I headed a couple of miles up the road and put in some gas and things seemed fine on all fronts. The return home was also fine and having dropped of my spare gas can I went back out to drive some more to test the carbs and fuel delivery.

As I left my subdivision there was suddenly smoke everywhere and a burning oil smell. If I slowed a little this disappear but with some speed it came back. Well this seems to be oil leaking down the drivers side of the block and getting onto the exhaust (although it took a while to figure this out). I’m guess that the tappet/side cover on the engine is leaking and almost certainly it’s the one I replaced way back when I first removed the carbs/manifolds to fine the front cover used on the back and the vent blocked off.

Well at least the fuel problem didn’t come back although the fuel filter is very low again. I guess the manifold is coming off again while I go back to check on that cover and although the car ran fine I am wondering if the fuel stuff might be a blocked fuel vent line. Some more investigations to follow after the Missouri Endurance Rally next weekend. The learning continues!

Well it’s been pretty cold until recently and last weekend we were in Chicago for the swap meet so not much activity for a while. Having spent some time on the 77 yesterday in preparation for the upcoming endurance rally I spent some time today investigating the puking carbs on the 72. They were overflowing pretty much all the time.

I decided to remove the carbs completely this time and followed a friend’s advice of using a bungee cord to keep the linkage and settings together. That seemed to work quite well and the carbs came off without too much trouble. After checking things over and comparing front and rear carbs it looks as though the front carb wasn’t fully rebuilt before I got them. This is the one that was originally missing the float cover seal. I noticed that the rear carb must have had a new float installed (based on the color) and it also appeared to have had a new float needle. I am suspecting that the front carb got forgotten part way through the rebuild.

The float appeared to be fine on the front carb, already replaced from before, but the issue seemed to be the float needle. I played around with this for a while but the float needle was not consistently dropping down as the float moved. This is when I decided to replace the float needle using one from the other set of carbs I had. I then discovered that the brass chamber for the needle was not big enough for the plastic spring loaded replacement I had. I removed the float needle seat from the old carb as well and then noticed the fiber washer on the top of it. It was missing from the one I removed and I wondered if this was part of the problem as well.

After trying to set the float position I then reassembled everything and put the carbs back on the car. After connecting the essentials back up I turned the ignition on and waited. The pump clicked and then eventually stopped. Whoo Hoo, seems the puking was solved. I then connected everything up and things were still working so I went for a test drive.

The drive went quite well and the car was running more smoothly than before. Hopefully as a result of the float adjustments I had made. However, after a few laps near the house the engine sounded rough and I had a loss of some power so I quickly U-turned and headed for home. I didn’t make it without some issues!

The car was running but seemed to have no power. I pulled over and tried to nurse it along the shoulder as I was less than a mile from home. I managed to coast some of the way and got quite close until there was nothing left. I stopped and couldn’t see anything wrong and fired up the car again and got it started and it sounded a little better. I eventually coasted home and got it in the garage.

On checking the fuel flow at the carbs it was an inconsistent trickle – made sense with the symptoms but what was the problem? I removed the hose at the fuel pump and tried the pump and fuel was flowing fine. Odd, so I connected the hose back up again and checked at the carbs and the flow was restored. Not sure what was up but I’m guessing something was causing a blockage that moved itself. I now see the fuel filter much fuller of fuel than ever before so maybe it was a little blocked all the time and has now cleared itself? I guess my next test drive I’m going to have someone follow me just in case. Still, it’s starting every time and the fuel filter remains at the higher, fuller level so we will see.

Well it was time to make that first legal leap onto the roads and I was finally able to drive the car down to get some petrol – just 2 miles down the road. The car seemed to run fine with the new fuel pump although despite just a short drive I pull out of my subdivision and there’s a local cop right opposite me. Nothing happened. I made it down to the gas station and noted that the ride was a little bumpy. My guess is that the tires must have some flat spots.

As I start filling up the gar for the first time (haven’t been able to drive there before today) the “Top Gear” theme tune started to play over the speakers – how funny is that! Prophetic maybe? The drive back was uneventful although I passed yet another cop on the way back. So only a short first legal drive but, it was very rewarding never the less.

Well although I had got through the state safety inspection I knew that the position of the brake pedal was not right on the bolt through the pedal box. There was some left to right movement.

Closer inspection revealed that it seems as though the space and bushing may have been fabricated rather than purchased and may not be quite right. I thought that using some washers as spacers I could get the pedal to move and stay more to the right of the car as would be needed to ensure the pedal lined up correctly with the hole in the pedal box cover and then, of course, with the brake light switch. I managed to remove the pedal box bolt and discovered the reason for the movement and decide a trip to Sears Hardware could probably fix things up.

I got some washers that were pig enough to go over the brake pedal bushing which appear to be too wide as it is wider than the actual pedal width. By putting in some extra washers this keeps the brake pedal in place as I need it to be. This may not be stock but it works. It was quite a fiddle to get all the washers to stay in place and then to get the bolt back through the pedals and pedal box edge. Still with some patience and multiple tries I was eventually successful. I think the pedal could still go a fraction 9read one more washer) to the right but 80% of the pedal shows through the hole for the brake light switch.

I have then been able to secure the pedal box cover and installed the brake light switch and everything is work again as expected so this should set me up for that first legal street drive.

Well although I have new points and condenser for my old pump, which has also started working without needing a tap again now, I decided I get a new SU electronic fuel pump as someone in the club had one and I could get it cheap. These keep the “tick, tick, tick” but are solid state electronic so no points to go bad over time. I also went this route rather than other pumps to avoid rerouting or changing any of the lines and hoses.

First problem I had was one of the ‘O’ rings for the new pump was missing. However a quick visit to AutoZone was able to rectify this – it may not be exact but it was close enough. I noticed that the banjo bolts have 2 holes in them and as this was my first time looking at an SU fuel pump I made the assumption that the bolt holes had to line up with the output lines. Wrong! I did manage to the things to work when aligned but I had a leak at the pump. After tightening this fixed the problem and in the interim I learned that the alignment I was so concerned about was not needed at all. Fuel will flow without this alignment of the banjo bolt holes and the car has been running fine.

I did get everything fully tightened down later and into position and one good thing that came out of the research into the banjo bolt alignment was the need to add some tubing to the air intake for the pump. Mine didn’t have any originally and I was blissfully unaware of this need. I now have some tubing on the intake and will tie this up in the battery box. Plenty more lessons learned about fuel pumps.